The Official Authors' Hangout Winter Holidays 2017 Support Thread

lol @Chloe. :)

This was my first entry in a contest. I was more worried that my scores would be lower because it was in a contest. However, I am very pleased that my story is scoring well and is my best-rated story so far. (I have only posted 5 on Lit). Though, I admit, now that I am enjoying those high scores, if the sweeps knock if way down, I might suffer a little disappointment. heehee.
 
I've been able to keep a certain amount of distance--I don't think my score is good enough to potentially place in the contest, so I'm not stressed about whether it might.

But my follower count has grown more than I hoped for. Dear god, does the taboo category ever get a lot of views. This is nothing like my experience with my Halloween horror story.
 
You really are off colour, girl. I'm selling my shares in Intel.

Back to work for Valentines, have no fears for Intel stock. And my "Blood Sacrifice" story is now on Amazon in the "Sex and Sorcery 4" anthology. The reason I missed getting an entry in for the Winter comp. so have no fear... Intel will recover lol
 
lol @Chloe. :)

This was my first entry in a contest. I was more worried that my scores would be lower because it was in a contest. However, I am very pleased that my story is scoring well and is my best-rated story so far. (I have only posted 5 on Lit). Though, I admit, now that I am enjoying those high scores, if the sweeps knock if way down, I might suffer a little disappointment. heehee.

Ohhhhh the sweeps shouldn't knock you down :D
 
I've been able to keep a certain amount of distance--I don't think my score is good enough to potentially place in the contest, so I'm not stressed about whether it might.

But my follower count has grown more than I hoped for. Dear god, does the taboo category ever get a lot of views. This is nothing like my experience with my Halloween horror story.

The joys of incest as a category. I've only posted a couple there and they both got a lot of views. I got some crossover into my incest stories from non-incest readers which is a bit against the grain too.
 
Due to the low-balling that happens in contests, the only way your score is going to go down is if your readership is engaging in any of those shenanigans.

If they're trying to help you out by voting multiple times, you'll almost certainly lose the extra 5s. That will knock you down.

If they're low-balling other people, they could end up triggering a bad-actor flag that wipes out all of their votes. It's unknown whether any such thing exists in the sweeps, but it's logical. If enough of someone's votes are suspect, why should any of them be considered legitimate? If their vote for you was a 5...

If you think your fans would never do this, or there aren't enough of them to amount to a hill o' beans, think again. Never underestimate the fandom. That's why almost everything I post ends with not only a request that readers vote, but that they only vote once.

It made a big difference in the number of votes swept, and especially in the number of 5 votes swept once I started doing that consistently.
 
I don't know that it brings in any significant number of votes, but there are bound to be people who don't even notice the voting form, and every one you capture is a step in the right direction.

Speaking of sweeps, a small one dropped a half dozen or so votes from mine and ticked the score back up to where it was after the last tiny sweep. It had dropped down .02 on perhaps 20 votes since that last sweep. Obvious trolling is obvious, and the Hoover is not fooled. LOL
 
I've gained .01 points, but I'm also gaining votes. Are there times when stories AREN'T swept for a contest? My story hasn't been swept yet (that I can tell). My other stories have.

The sweeps go through the whole Lit story file, not just contest stories. I don't enter contests, but my scores move around just the same as the contest stories - I can see when the sweeps go through.

If you have a story which doesn't move, that's a fair sign it's "clean" already. After a while, your whole file will have been scrubbed over and over, and that's your settled score (unless you get a focussed attack - it happens). So for all the score watchers, I now say, ignore everything and cone back in six months - that's when you know how your story went.
 
I noticed a sweep today. My contest story had 2 votes removed and bumped my up a .01, but one vote later and it went down again. lol

All my other stories that had votes that were gained from exposure from the contest all had 1 vote removed and dropped all but one story by .01 points. lol

My fans? Readership? I thought I was too new for any of that. lol I get very few comments on my stories and only have 36 followers since I've only posted 5 stories. But I guess anything is possible.

It doesn't really matter to me. The whole process is just novel since I'm a contest virgin. hahaha
 
The significant sweep will come sometime later today when the contest is closed. It's just wheels' spinning until then.
 
I've never had a story before which never touched an 'H' in the first weeks. Hasn't even come close. I'm more concerned about that than the contest atm.

I thought it was a nice little story too. :(
 
I've never had a story before which never touched an 'H' in the first weeks. Hasn't even come close. I'm more concerned about that than the contest atm.

I thought it was a nice little story too. :(

All you need is a couple od early 1 bombs ands you see a decrease in views and thus in votes. It sucks and it's depressing but it's not necessarily the story's fault.
I think with new stories it's good to check stories that aren't necessarily rated H because they can often be just as good. It's the route that I try to take.
 
I've never had a story before which never touched an 'H' in the first weeks. Hasn't even come close. I'm more concerned about that than the contest atm.

I thought it was a nice little story too. :(

Same.

I know the reasons in my case: a seemingly fetishy story in EC, forgetting to tag it as a contest entry for the first two crucial days, etc. But it’s still kind of unfortunate.

We all say we don’t care, but I’ll admit I kinda like the red H. This one never had a chance, and it’s my own fault.
 
Don't fret over your current scores. The sweeps that have run recently may not even be related to the contests. They could be requested sweeps, toplist sweeps, or any other type of maintenance sweeps. Such sweeps affect the whole database when they run ( as do contest sweeps ) so a few votes may vanish from contest stories.

You won't be able to miss the full-fledged contest sweeps when they happen. They're bone cutting and you'll be hemorrhaging votes at a rate that will take your breath away.

That is when you should see your score start climbing from the eradication of troll votes and contest shenanigans.
 
You won't be able to miss the full-fledged contest sweeps when they happen. They're bone cutting and you'll be hemorrhaging votes at a rate that will take your breath away.

There's probably only a few hours left for that to happen since the winners will be announced tomorrow and the contest voting is usually final in the wee hours US time.
 
Probably not far away, but it's a manual action, I believe. So it's going to depend upon when Laurel decides to do it.

We don't have any idea when official voting ends, either. It could already be over. The score that determines the winners may not be whatever your final score after the sweeps is, assuming you picked up legitimate votes after the end of the unknown voting period.

I'm still expecting the 11th hour surge of votes that typically happens around this time. Trolls and cheerleaders crawl out of the woodwork to slap new votes on everything, trying to push their favorites over the top, or topple everyone.

If it was me, I'd end the voting a day before the announcement for exactly that reason. Completely eliminates the noise of those 11th hour votes.
 
We don't have any idea when official voting ends, either.

Presumably the final sweep comes right after the end of voting. I haven't watched the scores at the end, but Pilot did for the V-day contest last year. The final sweep didn't start until very late and the end result existed for a short period. I placed in the contest and never saw the score that Pilot reported. It was very fleeting.

If it was me, I'd end the voting a day before the announcement for exactly that reason. Completely eliminates the noise of those 11th hour votes.

I've never had a problem with noise at the end--it's all totally dwarfed by the final sweep.
 
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Yeah, but it would be an even bigger giggle if the effort was completely for naught, and not even dependant on the sweeps :D

I haven't paid attention to recent contests, but the final sweep used to finish seconds before the announcement, which could come at any time after midnight on the listed date — even a day or two later if Laurel has other things to deal with.
 
I've never had a story before which never touched an 'H' in the first weeks. Hasn't even come close. I'm more concerned about that than the contest atm.

I thought it was a nice little story too. :(


Isn't gay male a pretty hard section to get high ratings in? I was under the impression it was a bit of a troll target.

It *is* a nice story.
 
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